Renewable Energy City Planner
Meet a city’s electricity demand by choosing power plants, and explore the trade-offs: renewables are clean but vary with weather; coal is steady but polluting; storage and mix matter.
Before you try
What if your city ran on solar only? What happens when the sun sets?
Try it out
Interactive activity
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What happened?
Move a control to see what changes and why.
Demand, weather and costs are reduced to a few dials. A real grid has to match supply to demand second by second, and storage matters a great deal.
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Try these ideas
- Build only solar. What happens at night?
- Add wind and a battery. Do blackouts disappear?
- Find the cleanest mix that still keeps the lights on within budget.
Why it works
Cities need electricity every hour of the day. Solar panels make power only in daylight, wind turbines only when it is windy, hydro dams are steady but need a river, and coal plants run all day but release lots of CO₂ and smoke.
Set the city size and weather, add plants with your budget, and watch the supply and demand bars across day and night. The city lights up when supply meets demand, dims during blackouts, and the sky colour shows pollution. Try to find the cheapest clean mix with no blackouts.
Check your understanding
Question 1 of 3
Which energy source produces the most CO₂ per unit of electricity?
Why might a city powered only by solar panels have blackouts?
What does a battery (energy storage) do for a renewable city?
Explain it in your own words
What changed? Why did it happen? Where might you notice this in everyday life?
What will you discover next?
Try Kinetic and Potential Energy: Build a Coaster next.
For parents & teachers
- Ask: which energy sources are used where you live?
- Discuss: should a city pay more for cleaner power? Who decides?
- Count the devices charging at home right now. Where does their power come from?